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Friday, March 11, 2016

Smooth Ceiling Renovation Part 2: During

The hardest part of any major renovation is the "during" stage. This one was definitely a HUGE challenge for us. It probably would have been a better idea for us to not be living here while the work was in progress, but we managed to be out of the house during the day and make due by living out of our office and upstairs bedrooms in the evenings. However. The. Dust. All. The. Dust. I'm still finding areas that I know I've cleaned, multiple times, but the dust is still settling, months later.

Basically, we had to move everything out of our house (downstairs) as if we were moving out. But we weren't moving. We considered renting a POD, but the cost outweighed the benefit for us. Somehow, all of our stuff went into the basement, garage, bedrooms, and where ever we could find a place for it. "Moving out" only to move back in was pretty annoying, I gotta be honest.

Then, it was demo day. I didn't even take photos of the worst of it. There was plastic covering the windows and doors and a layer of dust and debris literally everywhere we stepped. The goal was to quickly get in and get out of the house each day.

As you can see, the old ceiling has been removed, exposing the wood beams and old insulation. One major benefit was replacing the insulation and adding new insulation where it was lacking. Oh. And there was a dead bees nest in our kitchen. That was FOUR FEET LONG. So. Yeah. I'm glad I wasn't there to see that! I'm praying the bees don't somehow find their way back in.

Our skylight has always been a great source of natural light in our otherwise dark living area. But when it was all opened up, it was evident how "wonky" it was, not framed symmetrically or correctly. We decided to have it re-framed, creating straighter lines, and actually taking up less surface area in the ceiling.

At last! New drywall going up. The rooms started to take shape again. Just the sight of this was enough to give me faith that it would all be worth it.

There was a LOT of mud and a TON of sanding that needed to take place. And then more mud. And more sanding. There were areas of our ceiling that were sloped and had difficult seams. But Jesse did a really great job blending everything as much as possible and making it as smooth as it could be.

And then new lighting. Oh, sweet, glorious lighting! I've never been so excited about lighting in my entire life. Andrew and I were both thrilled about this part. Here's a sneak peak at our LED recessed lighting and my new kitchen fixture. Isn't it pretty? That's a much condensed look at the work in progress. I assure you, it wasn't this neat and tidy until it got toward the end of the two weeks. Andrew and I both did our share of sweeping, dusting, and scrubbing the floors on our hands and knees. He also worked into the night, many nights, to paint, re-paint and touch up all of the walls. Once again, he is my painting hero! It's amazing we're still married after all the painting I've made him he's done in our home. Stay tuned for the big reveal!